QuoteProject
I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people's lives when they go in one direction, not another.
Joyce Carol Oates
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Art often emerges from conflict and significant moments in people's lives.

Joyce Carol Oates suggests that the essence of artistic creation is rooted in conflict and the pivotal moments that define human experiences. By focusing on these dramatic junctures, artists can capture the intensity of life and the choices that shape paths, leading to profound and relatable art.

Themes

ArtConflictDramatic MomentsCreationHuman Experience

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote in an art class to discuss the role of conflict in artistic expression.

More from Joyce Carol Oates

Of the widow's countless death-duties there is really just one that matters: on the first anniversary of her husband's death the widow should think I kept myself alive.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
I never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
I'm drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
. . . there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.
Joyce Carol OatesRead

Similar quotes

Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. People believe them, but photographs do lie, even without manipulation. They are only half-truths.
Eddie AdamsRead
I just make the music feel the way I want it to feel, and I don't put it out until I'm totally happy with it.
Dr. DreRead
Fundamentally, I think of myself as a storyteller, not a writer.
Tom ClancyRead
This is Art holding a Mirror up to Life. That’s why everything is exactly the wrong way around.
Terry PratchettRead
Art is the most beautiful deception of all!
Claude DebussyRead
When I was building the Vietnam Memorial, I never once asked the veterans what it was like in the war, because from my point of view, you don't pry into other people's business.
Maya LinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.